Coasting: All Washed Up

Two years ago, I wrote in this blog (here) about a new concept, "Coasting," that Shimano had come up with:  to attract non-cyclists to riding, the company engineered an automatic transmission and it ended up on bicycles made by Trek, Raleigh and Giant in 2007, followed by four other firms in 2008.  The idea was that the 161 million non-cyclists in America could be lured onto the roads if they had simple, fun and relatively inexpensive bikes.  Although it seemed at first that sales were good, it now appears that the program has ended and no Coasting bikes are being produced anymore.

One of the fascinating aspects of Bicycle World is the endless inventiveness as people try to improve the Perfect Machine.  Coasting owes its origins to a design firm, IDEO, which received a brief from Shimano in 2002.  To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail and to the IDEO people the problem seemed to be the bicycle rather than the environment.

Trek's Coasting bike, the Lime, won the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum's People's Choice Award in October 2009 but that was not enough to save it.  In addition to the error of applying a technological solution rather than addressing the real problem of why people don't ride bikes, the marketers also priced the bicycles at around $500, which would make them very unappealing to extremely casual cyclists-to-be.  For that money, there are plenty of good bikes (admittedly some that need to be shifted) with practical features such as racks and fenders and wheels that are easily removed for tire changes.

Of course, if you are really not very picky about your bicycle, you can go to Wal-Mart and pick up a Mongoose commuting bike for US$119 (marked down from US$132!).  This is not a typo.  On the other hand, you have to assemble it yourself and will probably have to change the innertubes before the first ride or the plastic pedals (according to a surprising number of reviewers), but, still, 87 reviews of 113 gave the bike at least 3 out of 5 stars, and 34 of those went for the 5.  It seems to me that many of the reviewers were not "hardcore" cyclists but were just looking for cheap transport and were willing to accept parts that fall off sometimes.

The word "fun" does not appear in customer reviews of the Mongoose once but the people who bought Trek Limes seem to really like them.  I guess there were just not enough of those customers.

Coasting Bikes: The Road Ahead or a Dead End?

Giant Suede (top), Trek Lime (centre), Raleigh Coasting (below)

Coasting: Cycling for Everyone?

To the surprise of many of us who are obsessed by–oops, sorry: I meant to say "enjoy"–cycling, the bicycle industry in the United States is apparently in a decline. Bike sales have been flat for a decade at between $5.5 and 5.9 billion but as more high-end bicycles are being sold, cyclists are leaving at the other end of the market or never even getting in. The National Sporting Goods Association calculated that in 2006 35.6 million Americans over age 7 rode a bike at least six times in the year, down from 43.1 million the year before and 53.3 million in 1996. So as the expensive carbon bikes hit the market, revenues were stable but unit sales declined.

Shimano, the Big Daddy of the bike components business, was alarmed and retained a California innovation/design firm, IDEO, to create a better biking experience and, of course, sell more Shimano parts. IDEO went to the homes of non-cyclists across America and met with people to learn about their leisure activities.

In the end, Shimano/IDEO decided that what they were hearing was that cycling had become too intimidating and had lost its child-like fun. The choice available to cyclists had become overwhelming, and over-priced. They did not want to go into a bike shop and talk about technology and performance but wanted to reclaim their memories of just riding around as a kid. Nothing about being too lazy to ride or fear of Spandex!

Working with IDEO, Shimano came up with Coasting, a concept that called for new bikes that looked familiar and were easy to ride and affordable. In fact, the bikes require so little from the rider that they shift themselves, using a Shimano automatic transmission. Shimano also has made an effort to improve the bike purchasing experience so that Coasting buyers are comfortable in bike shops. Shimano then took its concept to several big manufacturers and to date Trek, Giant and Raleigh have Coasting bikes on the market and apparently sales are good. Even Business Week had a story about it.

From the reviews I have read, the Coasting bikes–the Trek Lime, Giant Suede and Raleigh Coasting–are pretty heavy and not very responsive. They are a lot cheaper than a decent Mavic wheelset at around $450 each and they look unthreatening with their rounded lines, covered chains and simple brakes. They do not have lights or even racks so it is unlikely they will be used for even short errands but probably for just riding around subdivisions.

Raleigh One Way

If the Coasting idea brings people into cycling, it is all for the better but it seems to me that perhaps the concept is a dead end rather than the smooth Highway of the Future. The bikes are not designed to be maintained by their owners–just looking at changing a tire conjures up nightmares–and their appeal will be primarily to people who will probably not move to more capable bicycles, either for commuting or sport. There are nice alternatives that are much better bicycles: for example, the Raleigh One Way is a steel classic-looking singlespeed bike (ie. no shifting), with fenders, good brakes, eyelets for a rack and a price tag of only $600.

To me the reason that people drop out of cycling or never get much into it is the perception that it is dangerous to go out and ride a bicycle on the street. I have ridden in heavy city traffic on three continents and there are skills that have to be developed. But there also has to be an environment that is welcoming to bicycles as transportation, whether through traffic-calming, market bike lanes or paths. If this element of the cycling equation were to be improved, I think that more people, across all age groups, would be more interested in cycling in the United States. Selling automatic transmissions to big manufacturers might be easier for Shimano than effective bike advocacy but in the long run–to reduce traffic fatalities, to improve your health, and to just have fun–the industry has to get behind advocacy in a much bigger way.

Cool-looking bikes, though. The first prototype presented by IDEO to Raleigh made the managers liken it to something that was a cross between Audi and Dr. Seuss.